How to Splice Low Voltage Landscape Lighting Wire

What do you notice when you drive around your neighborhood at night? There’s a good chance several houses caught your attention. If you pay attention, you’ll see that these are properties with good outdoor lighting.

Outdoor lights are a wonderful way to accent simple front yard landscapes. It also increases your living space. The pandemic has placed a lot of limitations on people’s movement. It’s no surprise that yards have become extensions of the kitchen or living room. Landscape lighting also increases your property’s value and adds extra security.

You can work with a landscaping company to add patio lights to your property. You can also do it yourself if you have the knack for it. A lot of people think this is an expensive and difficult project. But it’s cheaper and quite easy to do. You need the right tools to start. It also helps if you know how to splice low-voltage landscape lighting wire. This article will guide you on how to do it.

Why You Should Use Low Voltage Landscape Lights

Low voltage lighting is often used for landscaping. It’s a system that uses a transformer to change the normal 120-volt lines to a lower voltage. The voltage is often around 12 to 24 volts. Many outdoor lighting for homes uses transformers for 12 volts.

There are several reasons why you should use low-voltage landscape lighting.

• It’s safer to install. High voltage lighting systems will need someone with more experience and skill.
• It’s safe to use even in wet conditions. You won’t have to worry about children or pets digging up the wires.
• Low voltage lighting systems are more energy-efficient.
• The wires do not have to become buried in a conduit.
• The system is also easier to install. This is because it has no positive or negative wires.

Steps to Splicing Low Voltage Landscape Lighting Wires

You can install low-voltage landscape lights by yourself. But this article is not about that. Our focus will be on how to splice a light wire.

It’s important that you know how to splice wires. You might need to do this in one of your electrical projects. Wire or cable splicing is when you connect the endpoints of cable connectors. You can connect wires of various lengths. But their main characteristics have not changed.

Splicing is often done on electrical and fiber optic cables. It lets you connect damaged wires instead of using a new one. Splicing is the faster and cheaper option to getting new cables. You will need proper preparation before you do this though.

The first thing you should do is gather all the materials and tools you will need. Here’s what you should prepare:

• Connectors
• Connecting box
• Electrical tape
• Hairdryer
• Insulation stripper
• Shrink tubing
• Splice kit
• Solder and soldering iron

Once you have all the things you might need, it’s time to start splicing. Here’s how:

Stretch the Wire

Make sure that the landscape lighting wire you are using is not connected to the power source. Even low-voltage wires can sting if you’re not careful.

Stretch out the whole wire once you’ve double-checked it’s disconnected. Cut it from the middle after you’ve stretched it.

Strip the Insulation

Strip the insulation in preparation for the splicing. You need to strip both ends of the wire to about an inch. You should then separate the leads of the wire. There should be a difference of four to six inches for this.

Insert the Wire into the Circuit

Check that the wires are long enough that you can install the lights where you want. Make sure you double-check before you add any extra sections of the wire. The wire that you will add to the original one must have the same construction and gauge. You should strip them of the insulation as well.

Slide on the Heat Shrinking Tube

Your next step would be to slide in the heat-shrinking tube at the end of the wires. The extra wire should have a heat-shrinking tube at its ends. There should be two tubes on each end. This means you will need four heat-shrinking tubes for the two wires.

Twist Them Together

You should now twist the old and new wires. The combined wires must look like they’re one continuous new wire.

You should then get the soldering iron and solder the joints. Heat the wire first. Let it then flow to the joint. Repeat the process until the wires become connected.

Slide the Tubes over the Joints

Let the joints cool then slide the heat-shrinking tubes over them. Get the hairdryer and direct its heat to the tubes. It will begin to shrink. Check that the tube has become wrapped tight around the joints.

Test Your System

You can now connect the existing wire back to the power source. Turn it on and test if the spliced wire is working. If it does, you can start placing the fixtures through your simple landscaping design.

Are you ready to start your new landscaping project? This post on how to do landscaping on your own will help.

Create Impressive Landscapes

You can have an amazing and functional yard with the help of Landscape Improvements. We are a full-service landscaping company based in Orlando, Florida. We have been in the business since 1992, and we’re dedicated to helping people enjoy their homes. Our team of landscape experts can design a unique and sustainable landscape for you. We offer commercial and residential landscaping services. We also do container gardening, landscape lighting, and arbor care. You can reach us at 407-606-7326 or send us an email at info@landscapeimprovementsfl.com.